Mumbai: In a moment of frustration, Poland’s Iga Swiatek smashed a ball straight into the hard surface of Court 1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Not much would have been made of the incident, had the ball not come dangerously close to hitting a ball boy before sailing into the stands.
No matter the situation, any challenge to the safety of the ball kids is not treated kindly by crowds, and Swiatek was constantly jeered as she lost her semi-final match in three sets to Miira Andreeva. But what the world No.2’s action betrayed was a sense of frustration that stemmed much beyond the struggle of that one particular match. It brought up emotions that have caused her to spend “three weeks crying daily, and (not) want to step on the court.”
On Monday, in a lengthy post on her social media account, the five-time Grand Slam champion jotted down her thoughts, giving a glimpse of the mental stress she has been going through since the second half of last season.
“I expressed frustration in a way I’m not proud of,” Swiatek wrote about the incident at Indian Wells, a tournament she has won twice. “My intention was never to aim the ball at anyone but merely to release my frustration by bouncing it on the ground. I immediately apologised to the ball boy, we made eye contact, and nodded to each other when I expressed regret that it happened near him.”
Much before the incident last week, Swiatek had become a controversial figure in women’s tennis. Just after the US Open in August, she was informed that she had tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine or TMZ, in an out-of-competition test. Her team explained that the substance entered her system through contamination of the medication she had been taking to deal with jet lag and sleep issues. The International Tennis Integrity Unit Agency (ITIA) accepted the reasoning but issued her a month-long ban.
What did not go down well with the rest of the tennis fraternity was that, just like with Jannik Sinner, Swiatek appeared to have been given preferential treatment. She had been provisionally sidelined, missing three tournaments in October, before the news of her testing positive in the first place was made public in November. Later she was allowed to complete the ban period in the off-season.
“The second half of last year was extremely challenging for me, especially due to the positive doping test and how circumstances completely beyond my control took away my chance to fight for the highest sporting goals at the end of the season,” Swiatek wrote.
She added that she remained calm during her participation at the Australian Open in January, where she reached the semi-final. But during her semi-final and quarter-final runs in Doha and Dubai respectively, she started to feel the pressure mentally.
“In the Middle East, it struck me hard that my positive test result case, missing two highly-ranked tournaments in October and last year’s exceptional results, will keep affecting my ranking and basically take away my chance for No.1. This realisation deeply upset me.”
Often stoic on court, Swiatek, who had been world No.1 for most of 2022, 2023 and 2024, has become more expressive during her matches. The sudden change though has not been well received, with the player being regularly booed in stadiums and constantly abused online.
“When I’m highly focused and don’t show many emotions on court, I’m called a robot, my attitude labelled as inhuman. Now that I’m more expressive, showing feelings or struggling internally, I’m suddenly labelled immature or hysterical,” she added. “That’s not a healthy standard – especially considering that just six months ago, I felt my career was hanging by a thread, spent three weeks crying daily, and didn’t want to step on the court.”
Swiatek will next play at the Miami Masters, which she won in 2022. After that, the tennis tour moves into the clay season which is where she has been the most dominant player in recent years. The three-time French Open defending champion will be expected to continue her domineering run. But it now depends on how well she can overcome the mental battles.
